Reviews with content warning for Murder - In Cold Blood

I had trouble reading this book because it was for class and not on my own time but even if I had read it on my own I have some criticism. I genuinely cannot place capotes morals, are they corrupt or is he just doing what he’s gotta do to get the story out? We’ll never know ig. He may have been down astronomically bad for a murderer with the feelings at least a bit reciprocated, or maybe they weren’t and he was using him. OR capote was using him. All this kinda eats me alive that I’ll never figure it out and I don’t like it! Either way the ethics of this book itself are way questionable and the gates it opened by basically creating the true crime genre can’t be forgiven like the Clutters were real people with lives that were cut short by some senseless monsters. That just shouldn’t be something you profit off of.

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bucklace27's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

3.75

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soswiin's review against another edition

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dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0

definitely a unique format that grabbed my attention more than i thought it would've. yes, inventing dialogue and scenes made it read more like a novel than an informative essay as capote intended but it just didn't feel morally right. which is a dilemma that encompasses 90% of this book's controversies anyway. capote was brave for humanizing the clutter family's killers and i appreciate it to an extent — it elevated the pair from stereotypical jailhouse grunts to fleshed-out individuals with individual wounds and faults. while it added depth it still felt weird to ready about!! bad childhood ≠ the right to blow the brains out of an entire family. lot of repeated information which was quite helpful given the attention span i'd allotted for this.

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ryxthree's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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ashwaar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.5

This is another book I’ve read from my long list of classics and I really enjoyed it! I hadn’t heard of it before but it has been claimed as the first narrative non-fiction novel and whether that’s true or not, it was done really well. It’s a fascinating look into a seemingly motiveless crime in rural Kansas. Capote keeps the reader engaged throughout as you learn about and even sympathise with those involved in this chilling quadruple homicide.

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